Johannes Friedrich

Bio

Johannes is a Senior Associate within the Global Climate Program, leading WRI’s climate data and innovation work. He is the project manager for CAIT Climate Data Explorer and Power Watch and advises the institute on how to create new policy relevant data products and cutting edge visualization tools to turn information into action. In his role he works on a wide range of topics, including global climate and power sector data, policy analysis for the UNFCCC, food, forest and water issues, as well as corporate climate action. He also supports WRI’s Resources Watch project as whole to turn information into action.

Previously he did research on the scientific underpinning of the Planetary Boundaries concept at the Stockholm Resilience Center as well as applying his technical knowledge to marine ecology research in Egypt and working with the French-German television station ARTE in France.

He has a Bachelor's in computer science and an interdisciplinary Master's in science for sustainable development. He loves the outdoors, diving, biking and unicycling and prefers alternative modes of travel, like hitch-hiking and couch-surfing.

Negotiators and stakeholders headed to Bonn, Germany, for next week’s UN climate summit face a range of questions surrounding one essential query: How do we lower greenhouse gas emissions now to minimize the most severe impacts of climate change? The new Climate Watch data visualization platform can help address this challenge.

U.S. states are major global greenhouse gas emitters, and they have the economic heft and legislative authority to move the United States toward lower emissions and cleaner energy. These six charts show how state emissions compare, how they're changing and what could come next.

Now that 190 countries have committed to new national climate plans – known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs -- under the Paris Agreement on climate change, they are looking for ways to convert these commitments into action. The success...

While it may not be getting much attention at COP21, food loss and waste plays a huge role in the global climate change battle. Research shows that if food loss and waste were its own country, it would be world’s third-largest emitter!

Graphics based on data from WRI's CAIT Climate Data Explorer answer questions like: How have emissions changed over time? Which human activities contribute the most emissions? And who are the world's biggest emitters?

Publications

The Global Power Plant Database is a comprehensive, open source database of power plants around the world. It centralizes power plant data to make it easier to navigate, compare and draw insights for one’s own analysis. Each power plant is geolocated and entries contain information on plant...